This week’s picks include a look at the true value of cash value life insurance, an opinion about a single fiduciary standard, a look at actor Matt Damon’s “break up” with President Obama, a piece about why retirees don’t buy annuities, and Miss USA’s retirement advice – among others.

"My initial thought was to defend the dual standard. An advisor serving the complex needs of an older, wealthy investor--involving multiple accounts, estate planning, tax strategies, and so on--has a very different set of tasks than does an advisor who places a young buyer into his or her first mutual fund. The former mostly delivers a service; the latter is a sales person. Why should they not be regulated differently?"

"Every initial illustration I present will probably provide the worst performance and as interest rates rise, many in-force ledgers will look better and better. I can tell my clients if they like what I am recommending now, they will adore it in the future."

"Another way to look at it is this: less affluent retirees already have most of their retirement 'wealth' in an annuity–Social Security–and need to keep their other retirement savings liquid to pay for extraordinary healthcare costs and other emergencies."

"Advisors should take a second look at the potential of life insurance. These products can be a crucial piece of an advisor’s business and a means for an advisor to create deeper and long-lasting client relationships. Life insurance is known to be a 'sticky' asset, meaning that once they buy a policy clients tend to hang on to it––and the advisor they purchased it from––for the long term."

"In the three decades preceding 2002, health spending in the United States tended over the longer run to grow two percentage points a year faster than did G.D.P. Absent periods in which G.D.P. declines sharply, I would be surprised if health spending in the future grew even one percentage point faster than G.D.P. The actual differential may well be south of that."

"Don’t feel pressured to overuse the hashtag. No one wants to read a post primarily composed of hashtags. It’s overwhelming for the reader and your message will become lost. Remember, it’s all about quality, not quantity."

" As for intelligence, well, it's hard to really gauge when most of what you have to go on are the contestants' rehearsed responses. But this year's winner -- Erin Brady -- it turns out, has financial knowledge far surpassing what you might expect from a beauty queen."

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